Did I Get "glutened"?

[sonflawah]

I'm not even diagnosed with celiac's disease or gluten sensitivity, but I eliminated gluten from my diet because my baby is sensitive to it and he is breastfeeding. I have been gluten-light since 10/31/13 and gluten-free (but not looking out for cross contamination) since 11/28/13 and strictly gluten-free since 12/10.

 

Last night I didn't want to cook so I picked up some pre-packaged food from the grocery story -- a bag of Alexia sweet potato fries, some Ian's chicken nuggets, and some guacamole made at the store salad/deli area. I GOT SO SICK!!! I woke up in the middle of the night with the worst gas I have ever had, my whole insides hurt, and I woke up my husband and told him I was dying.... I really thought I was. Several trips to the bathroom later, and now I'm finally feeling maybe 95% better. All my symptoms were GI related. 

 

I never suspected that I had any kind of gluten intolerance because I had no symptoms, but is this reaction after eating questionable food indicative that my body doesn't tolerate gluten if there was cross contamination? The bag of Alexia sweet potato fries doesn't say anything about being gluten-free and doesn't contain gluten ingredients, but a quick google search indicates that they recently changed their processing and cannot guarantee they are gluten free anymore. And I don't know why I thought it would be OK to eat the guacamole made at the store just because it didn't contain any gluten ingredients, duh! That was probably loaded with breadcrumbs and I didn't even think twice about it. The Ian's chicken nuggets are pretty safe from what I can read online.

 

If this means I may have celiac's disease or gluten sensitivity, is it too late for me to be tested? I don't want to undergo a gluten challenge for the test because it isn't right since I am breastfeeding my baby now and he is sensitive when I eat it.

 

Thanks for any info!  

[cyclinglady]

For now, you might just want to stick to the gluten free diet.   I am pretty sure you have been gluten free for too long to get a good test result.  As you said, a gluten challenge could be damaging to your baby.  Consider a challenge when you stop breastfeeding if you want a formal diagnosis.  You may want to get your baby checked for celiac disease, but I'll defer that to others who have children diagnosed at a young age.  I understand it can be very tricky.  Talk to your ped about introducing gluten to your baby when the time comes (keep a journal, etc.)

 

Read the newbie thread as it contains lots of information (is your lipstick gluten free?)

 

I'd bet that the guacamole was the culprit!  Either it had gluten or it was spoiled! Hope you feel better soon. 

[NoGlutenCooties]

I agree 100% with cyclingLady.  There is also a nasty stomach bug going around so there's a chance it had nothing to do with what you ate. 

[cyclinglady]

That hit our household! I forgot. It was just my hubby. The rest of us got the standard flu two weeks ago. Hubby healed fast. It was a 24 bug. Either that, or I poisoned him! Ha! It is going around at school.

[anti-soprano]

I am pretty sensitive, but am often surprised when I eat something I think is questionable (simply because it was prepared by someone I can't interrogate) and I'm fine.  I think it's just as likely that the guac was spoiled as it was tainted by cross contamination.  Maybe even more so. 

 

However, your GI symptoms go along with gluten issues.  My sister has been gluten light for years and has finally committed to eradicating it. Although she sometimes very stupidly eats it on purpose and the results are exactly as you describe.  She thought she was going to die from the pain.  Did you have brain fog?  Dry skin afterwards?  Anything else out of the ordinary that you wouldn't think is connected?

 

I agree with the others who have commented.  Stay off the gluten until you're done breast feeding.  Then you can try it out and see what happens.  I also wouldn't worry about the testing at all if you do indeed have issues with gluten.  Here's a study I found when looking up the gluten challenge for my sister.  The summary in plain English: 

Open Original Shared Link

 

The actual study in medical mumbo jumbo: Open Original Shared Link

 

"The results of their study showed that after only two weeks of consuming at least three grams of gluten or more, over 75 percent of people will test positive for celiac disease."  This study was run on people with known/diagnosed celiac disease.  Although the study is beneficial in that it may improve the gluten challenge (testing 2 weeks following the gluten challenge seems to be more effective), catching only 3/4 of the known celiacs is not a good percentage to me for the pain involved.

 

If your baby turns out to have celiac, you don't really need to put yourself through all that- just do the math.  Or have the genetic test to see if you're at risk- then do the math!

 

Shellie